Make Process Improvement Results Visible: Play Eye Spy!

In a number of projects recently I have been playing a game of 'eye spy' to great effect. Can you remember that game from your childhood? You pick an object you can see and tell the other people playing what the object's first letter is. The person who guesses correctly first then gets to have a go.

Pretty simple game.

The approach I have used is to help my clients see whether a change has taken effect or not. For most business leaders they can use their KPIs as a gauge as to whether the change has taken effect. For the people who don't see the KPIs, but who are performing the new process, the eye spy game works rather effectively.

To use this approach you need to be clear on the cause (the new process / tasks) and the expected effect (the new result / behaviour).

The logic is that when the new process is embedded and working properly then you should be able to see the outcomes that you are looking for. There is sometimes a lag between the cause and the effect when it comes to business improvement projects. Having a practical way to relate the change can be really useful for the people involved and it makes the follow up meetings really practical.

So, rather than bogging people down with data (and guessing if the change has worked) you can choose to be more visual and look for the observable results. The trick is to translate the outcome you are hoping for into visible behaviours.

Over to you.

Giles Johnston
Author of 'Business Process Re-Engineering', a practical plan to improve business performance.

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